Anti Hopping Bill Inches Towards Reality

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Putrajaya will be conducting another round of briefings and consultations on bills designed to discourage elected lawmakers from switching parties and to set term limits for the prime minister.
According to sources, MPs have been invited to attend the briefing by Law Minister Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar on Feb 9 in Parliament.
"We expect to be engaged on policy matters concerning the 'anti-party hopping' bill and the bill to limit the prime minister's term to 10 years.
"We also expect to hear proposals on further constitutional amendments," said an MP who declined to be named.
The MP said the government looks set to table the bills in March.
The engagement session on Feb 9 is believed to be the second after Dec 22 last year. Since assuming the position of law minister in August last year, Wan Junaidi has held numerous engagement sessions on legislative matters with MPs.
Both the "anti-hopping" law and the term limit for the prime minister were conditions prescribed in Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob's confidence and supply agreement with Pakatan Harapan.
While a term limit was among Harapan's 2018 election pledges, calls for the "anti-hopping" law only gained traction after the events of the "Sheraton Move" in Feb 2020, which subsequently resulted in a change of federal government and several state governments.
Laws to discourage defections, argued proponents, could possibly lead to more political stability.
Putrajaya studying existing models of 'anti-hopping' law
It is not uncommon for countries to impose term limits for the chief executive but not so for laws specifically addressing the switching of political allegiances by legislators.
New Zealand and the United Kingdom are examples of countries which had passed laws addressing the defection of lawmakers over the past four years.
Some MPs who have attended the Dec 22 briefing told Malaysiakini that Putrajaya was studying several existing models for an "anti-hopping" law, including India, Singapore, Taiwan and the above-mentioned two countries.
Pengerang MP Azalina Othman SaidIn September last year, Azalina Othman Said (BN-Pengerang) had attempted to table a Private Members Bill, which detailed a "recall election" mechanism.
A "recall election" is practised in Taiwan, US, UK and Japan, among others, where voters can remove a lawmaker through a referendum before the term of office expires.
For example, Fiona Onasanya was removed as the MP for Peterborough in the UK after 27.6 percent of the electorate signed a petition under the Recall of MPs Act 2015 and forced a by-election.
In the UK, the law allows for just 10 percent of the electorate to sign a petition to trigger a recall. The petition can only be initiated by the local returning officer.
"What should be the threshold for Malaysia? Our turnout rate is relatively high. If it's too low, it's open to abuse," said one MP.
Unlike the UK, Taiwan allows for recalls by popular initiatives. The consent of only one percent of the electorate is needed to start the petition for a recall vote against a Legislative Yuan member.
Following which, only 10 percent of the relevant electorate need to sign the petition to move it to an official vote. When the vote is called, at least 25 percent of the electorate needs to participate for the vote to be valid.
Singapore's system is far less complex. Article 46(2)(b) of Singapore's constitution stipulates that an MP's seat becomes vacant if the person ceases to be a member of or is expelled or resigns from the political party for which the person stood in the election.
Rare act of bypartisanship
Regardless of the models, a key obstacle to the "anti-hopping" law was Article 10(1)(c) of the Federal Constitution, which states "all citizens have the right to form associations".
Other related laws are Article 48, which stipulates the conditions for disqualification from being a member of Parliament and Article 54, which stipulates the conditions for a vacancy in Parliament.
Amending any of these provisions will require the consent of two-thirds of the total number of members of both houses of Parliament.
The move towards an "anti-hopping" bill and term limit bill is a very rare act of bipartisanship guided by a 10-member, all-male committee overseeing the implementation of MOU terms.
The government's representatives in the committee are: Wan Junaidi (GPS-Santubong), Annuar Musa (BN-Ketereh), Takiyuddin Hassan (PAS-Kota Bharu), Hamzah Zainuddin (PN-Larut) and Tengku Zafrul Abdul Aziz (IND).
Harapan is represented by Fahmi Fadzil (PH-Lembah Pantai), Saifuddin Nasution (PH-Kulim-Bandar Baharu), Salahuddin Ayub (PH-Pulai), Gobind Singh Deo (PH-Puchong) and Anthony Loke (PH-Seremban).
There are further bipartisan technical committees working on relevant legislation.
So far, the MOU has resulted in the passage of a constitutional amendment bill that restored Article 1(2) of the Federal Constitution back to its pre-1976 wording. - Mkini

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